Trump and Pence attempt a more coordinated front

CLEVELAND – Donald Trump and Mike Pence, having bungled the formal unveiling of their partnership as the 2016 GOP presidential ticket, attempted a day later on Sunday to disprove the adage that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

In their first joint interview, the celebrity billionaire and the Indiana governor portrayed themselves as tough and resolute enough to handle the cascade of crises that have gripped the nation and the world in recent weeks – and as a sharp contrast to the leadership style of President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will be nominated next week as the Democrats’ pick to become the 45th president.

“We’re both ready. I have no doubt,” Trump told correspondent Leslie Stahl of CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an appearance set to air on the eve of Monday’s opening of the Republican convention here.

Their coordinated message was a sharp contrast from an event Saturday in New York, billed as the formal announcement of Pence’s selection.

Saturday’s event had gone off the rails as Trump stood alone at a badly lit lectern that bore only his name and gave only glancing attention to his new running mate. Instead, Trump reprised his primary victory, rehashed his grievances and launched broadsides against Clinton.

On Sunday, the two sat side by side and reinforced each other’s arguments.

Noting the rise of the Islamic State terrorist organization, Trump contended that “Hillary Clinton invented ISIS with her stupid policies. She is responsible for ISIS. She led Barack Obama because I don’t think he knew anything; I think he relied on her.”

Pence said that “the larger issue here is declining American power in the world.”

“I truly do believe that history teaches that weakness arouses evil,” the Indiana governor said. “And whether it be the horrific attack in France, the inspired attacks here in the United States, the instability in Turkey that led to a coup – I think that is all a result of a foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that has led from behind and that has sent an inexact, unclear message about American resolve.”

The interview had been taped before the latest wrenching tragedy, Sunday’s killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge. It was unclear whether they were targeted as a reprisal for the fatal shooting by police of an African-American man earlier this month in that city.

With the convention set to begin, Republican party elders and Trump campaign officials fanned across the Sunday shows in an effort to set the stage with a show of unity and to tamp down the internal discord that remains a sub-current of the four-day convention.

It stems largely from the unconventional nature of Trump’s candidacy, and the fact that the man who will accept the GOP’s nomination Thursday ran as a repudiation of the party establishment. His positions on issues such as free trade, of which he is skeptical, and entitlements, which he wants to preserve, are at odds with Republican orthodoxy.

“This is clearly going to be Donald Trump’s convention,” his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation. “The delegates on the floor are going to be his delegates. More important, the message is going to be his.”

One of those who has been at odds with some parts of that message is Trump’s new running mate. For instance, Pence had denounced Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration as offensive and unconstitutional.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus suggested that Trump’s stance has shifted to one that other Republicans might find more acceptable.

“If you have seen the last few weeks, his position that he’s put on the table in his position papers that are on his Web site and what he’s been talking about is a temporary ban of immigration from countries that harbor and train terrorists, until we get a better vetting system that is consistent with House bills and Senate bills,“ Priebus said. ”That’s Donald Trump’s position. There is no religious test on the table. It is simply limited to countries that are harboring and training terrorists.”

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